


Bronze to Gold

by amuk



Series: Hitsuzen [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alchemy, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bodyguard, F/M, Gen, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 05:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is an alchemist, one of a dying breed, creating miracles out of wishes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bronze to Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Theme: 06 // alchemy secrets

The sun burns brightly, hotly, on the pair as they trek across the vast desert.  One figure marches, confident and strong, ahead of the other, the rolling dunes an ocean between the two.

 

She stops,  staring at the sky for a moment, before sitting down. It's a clear blue, the clouds speckling it here and there. The sand feels soft to the touch, her hands sinking in it before she can find a solid spot. He doesn't turn around, not at first, and she spends those moments watching him.

 

His footsteps are exact, one in front of the other in quarter notes. Consistency, that is something he prides himself for and something she acknowledges.

 

His strength and skills are consistent, just as his silence and scorn is.

 

-x-

 

She is the one who chooses when they set up camp. As they cross this monster, this quiet beast of grain and heat, she will randomly decide she has had enough walking and just plunk down.

 

The first few times he didn't catch on until he walked a good kilometre ahead of her. He only realized she stopped due to the silence, her voice no longer a constant drone flitting in one ear and out the other. Turning, he  saw that she was sitting patiently behind him, her pastel hair moving with a barely existing breeze.

 

When he walked back, calling her weak, she gave him a short smile, her forest green eyes hardening into jade.

 

"I'm not tired," she corrected, "Just ready to try again."

 

-x-

 

They don't talk to each other much during their journey. She does speak, on and on, but with meaningless words. People, places, things she's seen and he's never believed, they escape her easily. He never deigns to reply, merely grunts when she pauses or gives her a look when she has been rambling for too long.

 

The secrets of her trade, however, remain looked inside her, a sealed safe. She never mentions a word about what she does each time they set up camp, the flaps of her tent shut to his eyes.  She spends hours there each afternoon, smoke and explosions of light escaping under the cracks and crannies. Sometimes he feels curious,  standing guard in the empty wasteland. Barely a shadow dances across the sand, the silhouette of a hawk, and time passes by slowly when it seems like he is surrounded by the sun.

 

Though she never said he couldn't look, he never breaches those clothe doors.  He comes from a village where keeping secrets are as necessary to life as breathing, sense alert for the slightest danger.

 

He knows there are some things that shouldn't be revealed.

 

-x-

 

"Are you Uchiha Sasuke? From Konoha?" she asked when they first met. She was standing outside the village gates, idly fiddling with the trinkets attached to her bag when he strode down the path.

 

A nod--silent gestures are nearly all he knows, silent gestures and an arrogance that seeps from his pores--and she gave a brilliant smile.  "I'm Haruno Sakura, your charge.  I understand you know where you are taking me already."

 

Another nod--it was a good thing Naruto wasn't around.  A man of noises and exclamations, he would have complained about the lack of communication.

 

"Haruno--"

 

"Sakura," she interrupted firmly, "Call me Sakura."

 

A wall of formality had to separate them and he repeated himself. "Haruno--"

 

"Sakura."

 

"Haruno."

 

"Sakura. Nice to see you know my name."

 

She grinned cheekily at him, her eyes twinkling as she resisted the urge to laugh. Growling slightly, he suppressed the annoyed part of him.

 

"Tch. _Haruno_ , we shall leave immediately. Follow my orders if you want to make it there safely."

 

"Yes, sir!" She gave him a mock salute, one he ignored as he turned around and walked back up the path.  This woman--girl, by the way she acted, he couldn't figure it out. What made her so important that the king himself requested his assistance?

 

He just couldn't see it.

 

-x-

 

Sakura is, in a sense, pretty. Not beautiful, not cute, just pretty. Her forehead, though the frame of her hair hides it at times, is too large for her to be beautiful, her features too plain for her to be above average.  Her emerald eyes and her striking hair colour shock for a moment but nothing else.

 

If anything, she has a spirit he can admire. During the day, though he'll never admit it, she manages to keep up with him as they follow a dirt path, the trees sheltering them from the world.  Even when they have to cross the desert, she makes only the smallest complaints, most of them without any expectations of reprieve. She's tough and of good stock, and for that he doesn't mind her company.

 

What he does mind, though, are the ways she eyes him sometimes, as though he is one of those puzzles she likes to play with while they travel. She sometimes makes a comment, an odd jab, intent on finding a piece that explains everything.

 

Sasuke isn't quite sure what will happen if she does solve him but he isn't taking any chances.

 

-x-

 

One night, she opens the doors and beckons him to enter. He always just watches, she notices whenever she comes out to eat. The food is always cooked already, his movements similar to those of a ghost. He flows from area to area, his gait a smooth slide, and she is hardly ever aware of his actions.

 

It only makes her more curious to find out just how one has to be raised to be like this.

 

He never looks inside her tent, a mercy she is glad of. The work she does is highly secretive with records stolen nearly every day on the alchemists' works. She is one of a dying breed, few left knowing the right techniques to change stone to gold, metal to fire.

 

Sasuke seems trust-worthy enough for this rare chance to see an alchemist's workshop.

 

Moving past the cool cloth, he blinks slightly in the dim light. Bottles perch on a small table, tubes curling around round bases and invisible particles as they weave in and out of openings. In one corner, a small fire is lit, three pans filled with some liquid he can't recognize. The heavy scent of phosphorous and sulphur lies in the air.

 

A cursory glance, examining each object with his eye, and he turns to leave.

 

-x-

 

There is only a day left of travel and Sakura thinks she'll miss this mute guard of hers, his deep frowns, his sharp tongue. He doesn't talk too much, more in a cryptic code when he does speak, but he is a little more open than he used to be.  She can get him to talk sometimes, about serious things, but nothing too personal.

 

He walks ahead of her, no longing in the steps he makes. Typical, he probably won't remember her after tomorrow.  His dark clothes, covered in patches of green shades, blends in with the forest they are now crossing.

 

A little further and they'll make it to the king. She has yet to complete the formula he wants and though she has no doubt she'll be able to do so, Sakura wishes she could finish it right now. This very moment as they walk, the birds calling one another, the leaves rustling in response.

 

Maybe then he'll remember her.

 

-x-

 

It's one in the morning and she should be sleeping. Her shadow stretches across the canvass, her movements like clock-work as she moves from one side to another.

 

He remains still, listening for danger. Any noise he hears now comes from her, the soft cursing when she bangs her hand, the muffled irritation when something makes a popping noise.

 

Soon the night will be quieter once more, only him and his breathing. He doubts he'll ever escape her noise, though, haunting his waking thought.

 

"YES!" She screams suddenly, her body flying out the tent as she dances around him. "I did it!" Now it probably is an hour before he normally wakes her, the sun starting to rise behind him. Sakura will probably fall asleep as they walk, as she nearly did the last two nights this happened. He'll have to carry everything, including her, once more.

 

Her hands wrap around his arm, dragging him behind her as she heads back to the tent. "Look! I did it!"

 

She lets go abruptly, clasping a small metal pan instead. He can barely see inside, the glow of it bright in the darkness. 

 

Glancing up at her face, he stills, watching for a moment. Her smile is even brighter, almost infectious.

 

It is at moments like this when he thinks she might, just might, be beautiful.


End file.
